A Conversation in Absence

"He's been gone along time."

"A little while, I suppose."

"It's been an entire week; do you think he's coming back?"

"I'm sure he will. Maybe his finals required a little more work than he realized. And he's been picking up hours at the bike store, too. But he'll be back."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. In fact, I can tell you he got back a report from a beta-reader, and he's going to talk about a few points that came up in there. I overheard him talking to his fiancee about it; it might be interesting."

"What was he talking about?"

"Oh, just some strange assumptions people make about characters and dialogue; things like that."

"Is he any good at dialogue?"

"I guess we'll see. But I don't want to give away too much. He'll be back, and he can talk about it to you then. But you'll have to make sure you're here, okay?"

"Okay, I'll be here. I hope it's good."

"See you then."